Let’s put that compensation in context. In 2018, 218 US athletes made at least $14 million, not counting endorsement income - about the same number as CEOS. So why such hand-wringing about the “outrageous” pay of CEOs but virtually none about the pay of professional athletes? Why the double-standard?

Also consider that CEOs are tasked with increasing the market value of their companies. The market value of the Fortune 500 was over $22 trillion in 2018. That’s an average of over $40 billion per company. Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that the market value of these companies increase $2 billion a year, on average. A $14 million commission on $2 billion isn’t all that generous - less than 1%. Much less than the typical 20% commission made by sales reps.

Ok, but much of the outrage comes from comparing what the tops CEOs make compared to their employees. Some typical headlines:

As for the CEOs making “1,000 times more than their employees”, the story identified just 13 CEOs in this group and their employees included seasonal and part-time staff. I bet there’s way more than 13 NBA players making 1,000 times what the average team employee makes, especially considering that NBA teams hire vast numbers of seasonal, part-time, and temporary workers. For example, Steph Curry’s current NBA salary of $37,457,154 is a 1000 times $37,457 - which in itself is much higher than what Warriors event staff members are paid. And that’s ok with me.